quotes from "Pierce Brosnan says Richard Osman was ‘too scared’ to visit Thursday Murder Club set"
https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/news/pierce-brosnan-richard-osman-netflix-thursday-murder-club-b2808457.html
by Maira Butt, Sunday 17 August 2025 19:01 EDT
quotes:
Pierce Brosnan has revealed that Thursday Murder Club writer Richard Osman was “too scared” to go on the set of the Netflix adaptation of his book.
“I think he was scared to come to the set, possibly,” the Die Another Day actor told Saga magazine. “He was a bit nervous, but he did join us and so did Steven [Spielberg, who is a producer on the movie].”
Brosnan stars alongside Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie in the forthcoming movie, which is set to be released in some cinemas later this month on 22 August, and on Netflix on 28 August.
It follows the story of a group of pensioners living in a sleepy retirement village, who form a group to investigate murders at their leisure. Based on the internationally bestselling book series by Osman, who will release the narrative’s fifth instalment next month.
Brosnan praised Thursday Murder Club for exploring the lives of older people, who he said are often “pushed to the side” of society.
“It will bring great comfort to people who are getting old,” he said. “We don’t really look after the elders in our society, they get pushed to the side. It’s a story of dignity and hope.”
. . .
Osman has previously said that his visual impairment has informed his characters, who have become much-loved by readers.
“In my life, I’m not judging people by what they look like, because I don’t really see it,” he said.
“I read books sometimes and someone will say, ‘someone has a twitch of their lip,’ or ‘their eyes do something,’ and I’m like, ‘I’ve never seen that. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ That’s not how I see the world. I don’t see what people look like, but I do get a very strong vibe of the world, how people talk, the attitude that people have.”
quotes from Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard:
Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right (always in terms of their beloved vessel, or tradition) than it is to be Christlike...
It aims to get people into heaven rather than to get heaven into people...
Now, the project thus understood and practiced is self-defeating. It implodes upon itself because it creates groups of people who may be ready to die, but clearly are not ready to live. They rarely can get along with one another, much less those "outside." Often their most intimate relations are tangles of reciprocal harm, coldness, and resentment. They have found ways of being "Christian" without being Christlike....
As a result they actually fall far short of getting as many people as possible ready to die, because the lives of the "converted" testify against the reality of "the life that is life indeed" (ontos zoas, 1 Timothy 6:19, PAR).
- Dallas Willard (Renovation of the Heart)
www.facebook.com/theologywithhumility
quotes from Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ, 2002
Mean Christians: “a mean-spirited suspicion and judgment that mirrors the broader culture … you can be vilified for just the slightest move that is displeasing to someone”
“Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right [about church traditions] … than it is to be Christlike. In fact, being right licenses you to be mean, and indeed, requires you to be mean—righteously mean, of course. You must be hard on people who are wrong, and especially if they are in positions of Christian leadership. They deserve nothing better. This is … the practice of ‘condemnation engineering.’” (p. 238)
Result: groups of people who “rarely can get along with one another, much less those ‘outside.’ Often their most intimate relations are tangles of reciprocal harm, coldness, and resentment.” — “being ’Christian’ without being Christlike” (p. 239)
Another Result: “multitudes of people (surrounded by churches) who will not be in heaven because they have never, to their knowledge, seen the reality of Christ in a living human being” (p. 239)
(YIKES!!!)
“In a crisis, if you’re prepared, you win.”
~ Jorge H. MartÃnez, the owner of a small Mexican company near the U.S. border who is grateful for Trump's tariffs.
“Truth is, this whole thing benefited us.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/world/americas/mexico-trump-tariffs.html
When Mark Twain married Olivia Langdon, he told a friend:
"If I’d known how happy married life would make me, I’d have married 30 years earlier—skipping the whole business of growing teeth."
He was 32 at the time.
They couldn’t have been more different. Samuel Clemens (Twain’s real name) grew up in a poor family, worked from a young age, and tried his hand at everything — from piloting steamboats to mining silver — before becoming a writer. Olivia was the refined daughter of a wealthy businessman.
Twain fell in love with her… before they even met. A friend showed him a locket with Olivia’s portrait and invited him to visit. Within two weeks of meeting her in person, he proposed. She declined. Twice. The first time, she cited the age gap and his rough manners. The second time, his lack of religious devotion. Twain promised to become a good Christian for her, but still, she hesitated — even though in her heart, she already loved him.
Fate intervened when his carriage overturned on the way out of town. Pretending to be seriously injured, Twain ended up back in her home. Olivia offered to nurse him — and after yet another proposal, she finally said “yes.”
From that day on, Twain did everything to keep her happy. He read her the Bible every evening, prayed before meals, and even kept 15,000 pages of his writing unpublished because he knew she wouldn’t approve. She was his first editor, censoring anything too bold — once even removing Huck Finn’s “Confound it!” because it was too coarse.
Twain once said: “I’d stop wearing socks if she told me it was immoral.” She called him her “gray-haired boy” and looked after him as if he were one. In return, he credited her with keeping his energy, humor, and childlike spirit alive.
Even in hard times — losing children, bankruptcy, Olivia’s illness — they leaned on each other. Twain’s humor was her medicine; he filled their home and garden with silly notes to make her smile, even instructing birds when and how loudly to sing outside her window.
They never raised their voices to each other, never had a scandal, and never stopped being each other’s safe place. For one of her birthdays, Twain wrote:
"Every day we’ve lived together has deepened my certainty that we will never regret uniting our lives. With every year, my love for you, my dear, grows stronger. Let’s look forward — to future anniversaries, to old age — without fear or sadness."
A love story for the ages. 🥰
from Facebook, origin and validity unknown
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
~Mark Twain
"Grief is unused love with nowhere to go."
~Rabbi Steven Z. Leder of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Los Angeles, CA
The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/style/jessica-assaf-dean-prince-wedding.html
TAKE 7,000 STEPS
Are you getting in your steps? The supposed magic daily number, 10,000, has long been a fitness cliché. Researchers have come up with a more scientifically sound goal, and thankfully, it’s also more attainable: 7,000 steps.
To arrive at that number, researchers analyzed more than 50 studies. They found that even a small amount of walking was beneficial: Regular, moderate walks were associated with a lower risk of dementia and cardiovascular disease. But more is better, and people who walked 7,000 steps a day — roughly three miles — have a 47 percent lower risk of death compared with those who walked 2,000 steps.
“It is just as important to walk 7,000 steps a day as it is to take your pills,” said Dr. Joshua Knowles, a cardiologist at Stanford Health Care.
Isaiah 50:10-11 NIV
10 Who among you fears the Lord
and obeys the word of his servant?
Let the one who walks in the dark,
who has no light,
trust in the name of the Lord
and rely on their God.
11 But now, all you who light fires
and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
go, walk in the light of your fires
and of the torches you have set ablaze.
This is what you shall receive from my hand:
You will lie down in torment.
(Trust God instead of lighting your own torch.)
